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Are you with Obama or Rush?

The president devoted hours to closed-door meetings with House and Senate Republicans Tuesday, had leaders of both parties over to the White House for cocktails on Wednesday and hosted yet more members of Congress for a bill-signing in the East Room Thursday.

All the while, he’s been dialing individual members on the phone and his top aides, including Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and National Economic Council chief Larry Summers, are conducting what one Senate Democratic leadership aide described as near-constant diplomacy on the Hill via both phone calls and personal meetings.

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A few chosen members of Congress of both parties will receive the ultimate in White House wooing this weekend when they join Obama Sunday night in the residence to watch the Super Bowl. The list is an ideologically diverse one. Politico has learned it will include, among other opposites, conservative Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ) and liberal Amy Klobuchar (D-MN).

More publicly, Obama is making his case for the bill through a series of events that this week included a high-profile White House meeting and speech before a group of the nation’s top CEOs. Friday, Obama along with Vice President Joe Biden will deliver remarks sure to touch on the economy at an East Room event focused on middle class and working families.

From the briefing room podium, press secretary Robert Gibbs has been underscoring the need for the stimulus with a series of sobering statistics. Wednesday it was some state unemployment rates and Thursday he noted that more Americans are on unemployment since records began being kept in 1967. Friday, he’ll surely turn to what is expected to be a dismal economic growth report from the quarter of 2008.

Senate Republicans acknowledge that they’ll lose some of their members on the first vote.

“We’re in a little different spot than the House in that we have a handful of Republicans who have all but committed to supporting the package,” said a Senate GOP aide.

The aide declined to say who, but speculation on both sides of the aisle is centered on a group of northeasterners -- Senators Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine, Sen. Judd Gregg (NH) and Specter.

Politico has learned that tomorrow a coalition that includes MoveOn, Americans United for Change, AFSCME and SEIU will begin airing radio ads in three states Obama won — Ohio, Pennsylvania and Nevada — with a stark message aimed at the GOP senators there: Will you side with Obama or Rush Limbaugh?

jon martin i wondered why u are such a cub. reporter . u used to work for national review that right wing rag . i have to admitt this is a great news article finally by you . if you go to huffington post you will see a article about you and your treatment of your confrontation with PRESIDENT OBAMA LAST WEEK. he was kind enough to let you that close to him and you disrespected him by sayng he is just another person . you are right he is but he is also the president of the united states . did u ever get that close to bush to ask about wmd -no. we will be waticing you and your code words the next 8 years . go to huff post and see the article . it is by paul robinson about the code words the media will use on obama the next 4 years that they would never use with bush.

First Obama with the charm offensive, then advertisements from our allies, next will be to put in effect Obamas 12million person email list to melt republican senators phone lines.

And maybe if we're lucky we'll alienate the rush limbaugh wing of the GOP, in other words, the whole damn GOP.

Obama has been planning a post election strategy for months before the election even took place....you really think, from what you've seen already, his people haven't been planning a political strategy as well as a governing strategy?

OH yeah, I want to point out precisely what every House (and probably close to every Senate) republican voted against – precisely what they don’t want American families to have access to. Maybe because they think American families don’t need help, maybe because they think that "the free market will magically cure itself", maybe because they are cold hearted snakes who care more about scoring political points than they do about saving this country from financial ruin

An increase in the maximum benefit under the former food stamp program (now called the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program or SNAP); An expansion of broadband internet access to rural areas of America; Programs to improve infrastructure and develop rural communities; Improvements to the criminal justice system; funding for science and technology research; Funding for the Community Oriented Policing Services; Funding to repair, maintain and renovate the Department of Defense (DoD) facilities; Energy efficiency projects and modernization of heating/cooling and electrical systems at the DoD; Improving Army barracks; Energy related research and development (renewable energy programs and expansion of existing weatherization activites); Funding for the Army Corps of Engineers (remember the levees in New Orleans that weren’t funded?; Modernization of the nation’s electrical grid; Construction and repair of Federal facilities; Funding for clean water programs and water infrastructure projects; Capital improvements and maintenance for Forest Service and National Park Service, the Superfund program and wildland fire management;

AMERICAN CHANGE AGENT please post this everytime a story on rush apperas . this is great and correct . go to all ultra conservative site like malkin / ingraham / beck / oreilly / townhall / fox / hannity / if you have time. lets make him come out and play!!!! I LL BET HE WONT . HE IS A COWARD .

As the debate over President Obama’s economic stimulus plan gets under way, one thing is certain: many of the plan’s opponents aren’t arguing in good faith. Conservatives really, really don’t want to see a second New Deal, and they certainly don’t want to see government activism vindicated. So they are reaching for any stick they can find with which to beat proposals for increased government spending.

Paul Krugman

Some of these arguments are obvious cheap shots. John Boehner, the House minority leader, has already made headlines with one such shot: looking at an $825 billion plan to rebuild infrastructure, sustain essential services and more, he derided a minor provision that would expand Medicaid family-planning services — and called it a plan to “spend hundreds of millions of dollars on contraceptives.”

But the obvious cheap shots don’t pose as much danger to the Obama administration’s efforts to get a plan through as arguments and assertions that are equally fraudulent but can seem superficially plausible to those who don’t know their way around economic concepts and numbers. So as a public service, let me try to debunk some of the major antistimulus arguments that have already surfaced. Any time you hear someone reciting one of these arguments, write him or her off as a dishonest flack.

First, there’s the bogus talking point that the Obama plan will cost $275,000 per job created. Why is it bogus? Because it involves taking the cost of a plan that will extend over several years, creating millions of jobs each year, and dividing it by the jobs created in just one of those years.

It’s as if an opponent of the school lunch program were to take an estimate of the cost of that program over the next five years, then divide it by the number of lunches provided in just one of those years, and assert that the program was hugely wasteful, because it cost $13 per lunch. (The actual cost of a free school lunch, by the way, is $2.57.)

The true cost per job of the Obama plan will probably be closer to $100,000 than $275,000 — and the net cost will be as little as $60,000 once you take into account the fact that a stronger economy means higher tax receipts.

Next, write off anyone who asserts that it’s always better to cut taxes than to increase government spending because taxpayers, not bureaucrats, are the best judges of how to spend their money.

Here’s how to think about this argument: it implies that we should shut down the air traffic control system. After all, that system is paid for with fees on air tickets — and surely it would be better to let the flying public keep its money rather than hand it over to government bureaucrats. If that would mean lots of midair collisions, hey, stuff happens.

The point is that nobody really believes that a dollar of tax cuts is always better than a dollar of public spending. Meanwhile, it’s clear that when it comes to economic stimulus, public spending provides much more bang for the buck than tax cuts — and therefore costs less per job created (see the previous fraudulent argument) — because a large fraction of any tax cut will simply be saved.

This suggests that public spending rather than tax cuts should be the core of any stimulus plan. But rather than accept that implication, conservatives take refuge in a nonsensical argument against public spending in general.

Finally, ignore anyone who tries to make something of the fact that the new administration’s chief economic adviser has in the past favored monetary policy over fiscal policy as a response to recessions.

It’s true that the normal response to recessions is interest-rate cuts from the Fed, not government spending. And that might be the best option right now, if it were available. But it isn’t, because we’re in a situation not seen since the 1930s: the interest rates the Fed controls are already effectively at zero.

That’s why we’re talking about large-scale fiscal stimulus: it’s what’s left in the policy arsenal now that the Fed has shot its bolt. Anyone who cites old arguments against fiscal stimulus without mentioning that either doesn’t know much about the subject — and therefore has no business weighing in on the debate — or is being deliberately obtuse.

These are only some of the fundamentally fraudulent antistimulus arguments out there. Basically, conservatives are throwing any objection they can think of against the Obama plan, hoping that something will stick.

But here’s the thing: Most Americans aren’t listening. The most encouraging thing I’ve heard lately is Mr. Obama’s reported response to Republican objections to a spending-oriented economic plan: “I won.” Indeed he did — and he should disregard the huffing and puffing of those who lost.

Increase the earned income tax credit for lower income families with three or more qualifying children; Increased funding for emergency unemployment benefits for those who exhaust the amount of benefits they collect; Temporary increase in amount of unemployment benefits; Assistance to states for spending on Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program; Extension of Medicaid coverage to certain unemployed workers; Assistance with COBRA premium payments for certain unemployed workers; and Incentives for health care providers to use "health information technology" which would reduce health care costs for providers and lower premiums.

Granted, this is not something that I would expect anyone to memorize, but if you look at these programs, they are geared towards jobs, education, infrastructure and emergency assistance to lower and middle income families. This is what republicans voted against. This is what the republicans feel is not as helpful to American families as capital gains and corporate tax cuts.

And this is why Obama, the Congressional Democrats and Americans should (if they already don’t) realize that the republican party is negotiating in bad faith. They would have voted against this bill regardless of what was in it or not in it. They simply do not care about helping American families. As Rush Limbaugh said, they want America to fail.

This is the first in a long string of issues where obstructionism and whining will be crystal clear. This is another example of how Congressional republicans and their cheerleaders are out of touch with reality and the American public’s pressing needs. And as America moves forward, nobody should forget who is trying to stand in the way – just for the sake of standing in the way.

Really? Obama or Rushbo, that's funny. I didn't know entertainers established policy. Maybe Obama hasn't seen the actually numbers of the previous stimulus package, but it didn't stimulate the economy. From this article it sounds like they're trying to buy the vote of the Republicans, this stimulus package has nothing in it that will help the econonmy. Handing out a check didn't nothing 6 months ago and it won't do anything this time. Will handing out a check create jobs? Maybe I'm missing something.

This is nothing but a pork bill that will KILL JOBS!!!! 4 Billion for ACORN, 300 Million for STD prevention, etc etc., Clearly you've just fallin in line with your party and their destructive ideology. How about you find out whats in the bill before you go making ignorant comments?

Why are the Democrats so upset? If the stimulus bill is so great, and you don't need any Republican votes to pass it anyway, as they keep boasting about, then why so much animosity? You pass the bill. You get all the credit! So what's the problem?

Handing out a check didn't nothing 6 months ago and it won't do anything this time. Will handing out a check create jobs? Maybe I'm missing something

LOL Handing out a check is exactly what Bush wanted done, tax cuts in the form of checks. The republicans rubber stamped it and the democrats gave bipartisan support because they believed their president. Obviously no one should've believed bush EVER.

Now republicans want to do the EXACT SAME THING. Tax cuts in the form of checks for the lower-upper class and upper class...nothing for the working poor.

Dems actually want to spend money on real things that will create jobs, and be present to support society for future generations, for the real working people that add value into this economy.

Obamas plan gives EVERYONE a tax cut, but guess what?! Since the upper class only pay up to 100,000$ of pay roll taxes ,and they're already used to so much money, getting a tax cut out of only 100,000$ isn't enough for them....so they lust for more, and the GOP plans on giving it to them, economy be damned.

I am with Rush because he only has the power to entertain us, whereas Obama has the power to ruin us. And it looks like he is well on his way. But that is okay because the more damage he does, the easier it will be in the mid term elections to clean house, as the label of Democrat will be synonymous with failure, just as it always has been.

This is nothing but a pork bill that will KILL JOBS!!!! 4 Billion for ACORN, 300 Million for STD prevention, etc etc., Clearly you've just fallin in line with your party and their destructive ideology. How about you find out whats in the bill before you go making ignorant comments?

LOL! The ditto-head speaks. Nothing but a bunch of Limbaugh bots in here!

Brad Woodhouse, the Democratic strategist who is overseeing the ad campaign, said: “The House Republicans put their Senate colleagues in the crosshairs because they decided to play politics rather than do the right thing.”

They did do the right thing. They voted against a huge spending bill, not a stimulus bill. It will never create 4 million new jobs. Thank you Congressmen (including 11 Democrats) who voted against such a poorly crafted bill.